CHAPTER XXI.
GROVE TOWNSHIP.

FIRST BUSINESS HOUSES.

Eggleston's store was the first in Atlantic, and the lightning change he made is illustrative of the last days of Grove City and the first, of Atlantic. He tore down his store in the former city one October Saturday, of 1868, and removed it to the new town. On Sunday he put it together again on what is now Chestnut street, the next lot south of where Mr. Whitney afterward erected his elegant business block, and on Monday he was ready for business. The Eggleston building was fourteen by sixteen feet, made of pine lumber, and contained a fair stock of groceries and provisions. It was burned in 1871.

The next store after Eggleston's was the drug establishment of McFadden & France, northwest corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets, and they were followed by Mr. Southwick, who kept drygoods and groceries; Montgomery (Dr. G. S.) & Wyncoop, the latter firm of druggists coming from Grove City; and P. Kirby, a boot and shoe merchant, who was also an emigrant from the city below.

The Atlantic House, already noticed as having been completed for the town company by Henry Miller, was opened to the public in November, 1868, by John Bennett & Son, but in December, 1869, they sold the building and the business to John R. Reynolds, who in the latter year had established one of the first lumber yards in Atlantic. In the summer of 1870 the name of the hotel was changed to the old familiar Reynolds House. The pioneer hotel was a small frame structure, and as the town grew, and as the genial and energetic proprietor kept pace with its demands, large additions were made to its accommodations. In 1882 he erected a fine three story brick building, on modern lines, and made his hostelry a credit to Atlantic and southwest Iowa.

John R. Reynolds was one of the strong characters of the State--a man of most varied experience and useful life. He was the son of a Vermont farmer, and after receiving a good education and some business training in the East, in 1852 started for California by way of Central America. He remained in California for three years, engaged in mining, and then returned to the States by way of New Orleans. During the succeeding fourteen years he lived in Alton, Springfield and Rock Island, the last named city being his home for most of that period. Although this was his home, the old roving spirit at times possessed him and he made another trip to California and Oregon, traveling over a large part of the latter territory. Upon his return to Tock Island he tood a leading part in the construction of railroads in this section of the West.

At the time of the construction of the bridge at Davenport, and the building of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad from the Mississippi to Des Moines, he furnished a large amount of material. He was also a contractor on the Racine & Mississippi Railroad, and built a hundred miles of the Union Pacific line out of Omaha, employing in the latter work as high as 2,000 men. In 1862 he made another overland trip to the West, leading a train from Omaha to Oregon, more than 480 miles of the route being through a wild and unexplored country. In 1867 he again engaged in railroad contracting, and two years afterward came to Atlantic to become identified with the growing city. He afterward built the Griswold branch of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and, besides being largely instrumental in building up the business interests of Atlantic, served with honor as a member of the City Council and of the School Board of the Independent district.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 228-230.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, July, 2018.